Philip Howard Colomb

Philip Howard Colomb (born May 29, 1831, Scotland—died Oct. 13, 1899, Botley, Hampshire, Eng.) was a British naval officer and historian, noted for his innovative theories about sea power.

Colomb entered the Royal Navy in 1846 at age 15 and served successively in the Mediterranean, China, Myanmar (Burma), and other areas. He invented a new and more efficient way of signaling between ships at night, and his system was adopted throughout the Royal Navy in 1867. He was retired from active service in 1886 and reached the rank of vice admiral in 1892.

Colomb made a special study of naval tactics for steam-powered vessels, but his major work remains Naval Warfare, 8 vol. (1891). In this overly long historical study he stressed the importance of sea power in maintaining Britain’s colonial empire and its geopolitical supremacy vis-à-vis the other European powers. Colomb thus came independently to many of the conclusions that were more ably publicized by Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan.